


color

by Liberte_Egalite_Broadway



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Divergence - Thor: The Dark World, F/M, Face Slapping, Loki-centric, Tasers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 06:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11617863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liberte_Egalite_Broadway/pseuds/Liberte_Egalite_Broadway
Summary: Loki is in prison following his battle with the god he once called brother.Darcy Lewis is struggling to help a friend return to her lost love.Neither of them has ever seen color, until now.





	color

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OvereducatedAndOverworked](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OvereducatedAndOverworked/gifts).



> Hey there OverEducatedandOverWorked! When I got your prompt I was freaking out inside a little bit because I've never seen Thor. I'm not one of those Marvel girls, even though I've read up on Norse Mythology before. So I got the movie out from the library and let it play while I did some work. 
> 
> Then my sister informed me that to understand how Darcy would get to Asgard, I would really need to watch the second movie. Ain't nobody got time for that, so I had her give me a summary, read some Wikia pages, and decided to write a canon divergence. 
> 
> If this isn't totally accurate, I really apologize - but I'll try to fill your prompt as best as I possibly can! Forgive me if this runs on the short side. Thanks again for running the gift exchange!

_Loki stalked up and down his cell, occasionally glaring out at the god seated just beyond the walls._

_"Do you want to talk?" asked Thor around the remains of the leg of_ _boar_ _he was chewing on._

_Loki scoffed. "Not to you."_

_"Oh look, some improvement!" Thor tossed aside the bone and clapped his hands, that ridiculous smile spreading across his face again. "Brother -"_

_"Stop calling me that!" Loki snapped._

_Rather than look angry, Thor seemed merely amused. "Well well well. Prison does not suit you."_

_He scooped up that stupid hammer which he insisted upon carrying everywhere and gave a mock salute. "I'll come back again tomorrow," he said. He turned, snapping his cape behind him, and marched away._

_Loki sighed and slid down to the floor, his back against the wall. He stared across_ _the black floor at the gray bone still sitting there. Everything was black, or gray, or sometimes white. Humans had this condition from birth because they would not see color until they met the person that the gods had destined them for. Loki had this condition by some strange mutation. He could not have a soulmate, despite the tauntings of his "brother". Gods did not have soulmates._

_Uncertainty swam around his mind for a moment. Loki would have glared at his mind, were_ _he somehow able to._

_"Gods do not have soulmates," he repeated aloud._

_The words echoed around the emptiness. He sighed and tipped his head back against the wall._

_Darcy swept into Jane's lab one morning to find her friend grinning. Jane ran up to her, waving a gadget with a smile on her face._

_"It worked!" she exclaimed._

_"What?" asked Darcy._

_Jane sighed and grabbed her by the arms. "Darcy, we've been working on this for the past five weeks, how could you have forgotten what it is?"_

_"Sorry," Darcy mumbled, tapping the side of her head with two fingertips. "Haven't had tea yet. Ohhh, oh, do you mean the thing you're making to-"_

_"To get to Asgard," said Jane, tapping some buttons. "To find Thor!"_

_"Right." Darcy nodded. "So, what do we do now?"_

_"Well." Jane dragged her to a chair and held up the gadget. It looked almost like a remote, but Darcy remembered that it was only the last step in a long-winded process to build a machine. This doohicky would set that machine off and poof, into the clouds they went. Hopefully to return home in time for lunch. Jane had been explaining her plan to get them up to Asgard for a long time. From what Darcy understood, it basically consisted of, Hey Thor. Remember us? You kissed me, and this is my friend Darcy, who maybe you noticed. Come back to Earth with us! Bang, bong_ _, press the button again, back down to Earth they go. Darcy adjusted her glasses and turned her attention back to her friend. "Once it's hooked up," Jane was saying, "we can step into the machine and press this. Thor told me there are several realms, and from some of the clothes he left behind, I've managed to determine the difference in atomic makeup in Asgard. This machine will re-arrange our atoms and then shuttle us to the next realm."_

_"...you made a space time rip?"_

_"No," said Jane, "I made a realm-rip. Or I will have once I press the button."_

_"And when are we leaving?"_

_"Now." Jane scooped up the remote and a bag and swept over to the machine._

_"Wait, hang on!" Darcy exclaimed, scrambling to her feet. "Jane, what if this doesn't work and you kill us?"_

_"It's fine!" Jane called from where she was flipping levers. "I already tested it with a cat."_

_"You tested -" Darcy rolled her eyes, grabbed her taser from the tool-bench, and stuffed it into her satchel. Ugh, I just hope we'll be back in time for lunch._

_Light from the machine flooded the room, changing the shades of gray and black that Darcy saw. She squinted. Jane, one of the few people born without a soulmate, never seemed to get that it was kinda tricky for poor single color-blinds like Darcy to adjust to sudden light changes. Probably she was soulmate-less because she was supposed to fall in love with a god. Did gods not have soulmates? It would make sense -_

_"Darcy!" Jane shouted. Darcy huffed and ran over to the machine. Jane pulled her in and closed the door behind them. "Okay." In the near-darkness, her face was just visible, turned up towards the heavens, through which they would probably have to go to get to Asgard. "Fingers crossed."_

_Darcy squeezed her eyes shut. "Jane, I already feel sick-"_

_"Shh!" Jane pressed a button on the remote. The world began spinning, shaking like somebody was rattling the machine. Darcy pressed a hand to her stomach._

_"It's working!" Jane laughed. "It's-!"_

_Her words stopped suddenly like someone had sucked them away from her, and Darcy felt them both being lurched out of the machine without moving a muscle._

_Odin wandered up to Loki's cell and stood before it. "How are things for you?" he asked in a low rasp._

_Loki sighed and waved a hand. "The accommodations are somewhat limited, if I may be honest."_

_Odin cracked a satisfied smile. "Good." He straightened up, fixing his one eye on Loki. "And is the world still colorless for you?"_

_"If you came to taunt me, Fath- sir, it won't work."_

_Odin scowled down at him, and Loki looked away. He still had not been permitted to forget that he was almost responsible for Odin's death, and again for Thor's. He is an enemy. A Frost Giant among gods. He is a threat, and so he is confined in these almost invisible walls. Loki pointedly continued the book he was reading._

_"I thought you should know_ _," Odin hissed, "that your eyes will not see darkness for much longer."_

_Loki's head snapped up. "What?"_

_"She is coming. The poor girl is coming."_

_"The poor girl -" Loki snapped his book shut and banged a fist against the wall. "No, it cannot be true! Gods do not have -"_

_"Yet, you are not quite a god, are you?" Odin smiles. "Frost giant."_

_"You mean to tell me," Loki hissed, "that you have set some - some human as my soulmate?"_

_Odin turned and begins to walk away._

_"I want answers!" Loki shouted after him, banging on the walls. "Come back! Answer me!"_

 

Darcy feels herself slam into something hard. When she lifts her head to look at it, she finds it is a rainbow. A huge, sparkly rainbow, made up of seven shades of gray, that for some reason hit her like concrete. 

Jane is crouching nearby, her eyes turned up. Darcy lifts hers as well and finds that before them is a huge, glistening city. Buildings spiral and shoot into the skies, glowing and shimmering, reflected on the rainbow. Clouds hover in the sky above them, waterfalls tumble down into the sky below them, and everywhere that Darcy looks, she sees something even grander than what she saw a moment ago. 

"Whoa," she mutters. "There's something you don't see every day." 

A moment later, armed guards come tramping out of one of the fancy buildings, running at Darcy and Jane. Both women hop to their feet and hold up their hands. 

"On the ground!" one roars, drawing close. 

"No no no, wait!" Jane exclaims as a spear is pointed towards her. "Wait - we're friends of-"

"Jane?"

Jane and Darcy look to the side. From behind the crowd of soldiers steps the thunder god who crash-landed in their world a while back. His blond hair (whatever blond is, that's what Jane calls it) is down loose over a ceremonial suit of armor and dark cape. He beams and pulls first Jane, then Darcy into a bone crushing hug. "Good to see you again!" He turns back to the guards. "Thank you, you are dismissed. They're with me."

The guards eye Jane and Darcy, but turn and file off all the same.

"Thor," says Jane, brushing back a lock of her hair. "Uh-"

"Jane, how did you get here?" Thor smiles. "Did the gatekeeper let you through?"

"Uh, no." Jane smiles awkwardly. "We built a machine."

"Oh, you used your funny human magic." Thor nods knowingly. "Well. Excellent." He drapes an arm around her and with the other gestures over the buildings. "Now that you're gone from your boring world, you shall enjoy the wonders of Asgard! First, a tour?" 

"Actually," says Darcy, wondering if she will be required to miss her lunch, "We came to get -"

"Tour, and then a feast in the halls of Valhalla," said Thor, ignoring her. "Follow me."

"...you," Darcy huffs. She stalks after the couple, noticing that Jane has slid the remote into a pocket under her sweater.

 

Thor leads them over the bridge and up spiraling, shining streets, chattering away about the gnomes who built this and the labor that produced that. Darcy nibbles at a hangnail, unimpressed. She's sure it's beautiful, but like always, she can't fully enjoy it because she can't fully see it. 

Jane is wonderstruck, pointing things out to ask about them, and listening in rapt attention to everything that Thor says. She never stops asking questions. It's endearing but annoying. Darcy's stomach grumbles. 

"When can we have the feast?" she asks.

"Hmm?" Thor glances over one beefy shoulder. 

"I said-"

"What about Loki?" asks Jane, stealing his attention back. Darcy lets out a groan, but it goes unnoticed. "You had to leave to deal with him, right? What happened to him?"

"Ah." Thor winks. "Follow me."

 

Now he leads them inside and down, down halls and stairs that grow less and less grand and more spartan, till eventually, they find themselves in what looks like a prison. More and more guards line the walls the further they go, and if Thor weren't there, Darcy is sure she and Jane would have been sent back long ago. Eventually he stops outside of a door. 

"Loki," he says, "is in here."

He pushes open the door, and Darcy steps inside. 

Sitting in the center, apparently not held in by anything, is a man who's head is turned to the floor. Thor calls out a greeting to him, but Darcy barely hears it; for some reason, her eyes are fixed on him. His head lifts, showing a face framed by dark black waves of hair, and eyes that are...

_...green..._

 

The world floods with color. 

The second that Loki sees the human girl, everything brightens up. Golden light fills the room. Thor's red cape flickers above shadows, the only colors he is familiar with. The human's strangely floppy pink hat perches behind brown curls. The blue frames she wears in front of her eyes (which are also blue) glint under the torchlight. She is beautiful, the world is beautiful, and Loki is so confused that for a second he does not even realize she has approached the cell. 

Thor is opening the invisible door, the girl is marching in. Loki opens his mouth to say something, but before he can she slaps him across the face. 

"YOU!" she hollers. "YOU are the reason Thor had to leave!"

"I-"

She jabs a finger back at the other human girl (who is decidedly plain and for some reason hanging off Thor's arm). "She cried for _ever_ and did so much work after he left, and it was your fault." She slaps him again. Loki reels, but the girl has already strode out of the cell and turned.  "Jane, Thor, let's go."

And a moment later they are gone. 

Loki stares back at the door swinging on its hinges from where the trio walked out. He lifts a hand to his stinging face, noticing that the flesh is tan and the veins in his wrist are blue - colors he has never experienced but can somehow discern. A word hovers at the back of his mouth, a word he was tempted to call after the girl, and then softly slips out of his lips.

"Wait..."

His back hits the wall and he slides to the ground. "Wait..."

Then anger fills him, and rising to his feet, he pushes back his hair and glares after the door, banishing his weakness. This is not real. Has he forgotten that? This is an illusion created by a god to punish him for not fully being one. This is Odin's malice, taunting him. 

The colors are nice, but the girl is nothing. 

 

Darcy is shaking; Jane grabs her by the arm once they're far away. "Darcy, what happened?"

 _Yeah, what happened?_ She still can't see straight. All of the colors flood her vision, and all of the craziest thoughts fill her mind. She spent five years looking for her soulmate before finally giving up. And now he's here. He's... a god. 

This is  _not_ how she was expecting today to go. 

"Darcy?" Jane repeats, and Darcy forces herself to answer.

"I got angry." 

Thor chuckles. "Quite understandable. My brother has that effect on people."

"But Darcy, you didn't even know who we were talking about," Jane says in confusion. 

"Yeah, well, I figured it out, okay?" Darcy turns to Thor. "What's next? Can we eat something?"

"Certainly. This way. And don't worry, Jane. Her reaction was a very normal one."

Jane eyes Darcy, who looks away. She's still trembling, still shuddering all over, which is unusual for her. When she saw that guy, and the colors cam,e she didn't know what to do... she just grabbed Thor to get him to open the door, and ran in to slap him, because it was something to ground her to what's normal. She fingers the taser at her belt. Maybe she didn't go far enough. 

Thor goes on ahead, but Jane grabs Darcy's arm once he's out of earshot. "Darcy, what really happened?" she asks. 

Tears flood Darcy's eyes, and she looks up. "I-"

"Come on, you can tell me," Jane urges. "What was it?"

Darcy slaps away a tear. "I-" she whispers, "Saw color."

Jane blinks. "You mean-"

"Yeah." Darcy laughs and shakes her head. "I mean, am I even attracted to him? Like, I just saw the guy once and I slapped him because I was worried you or Thor would notice something was different - and, like, it all happened so fast and the world just changed..."

Jane is quiet for a moment. Then, "Maybe you should go back and apologize."

"Apologize?" Darcy looks away. "No. Jane, he's ugly anyway. And he's why Thor had to leave you. I couldn't possibly hurt you like that."

"You wouldn't hurt me," says Jane gently. 

"Forget it, I'm really not interested. I can see color now, so hooray. Let's go eat." Darcy stalks off, ignoring Jane's continued protests.

 

Color.

It's a strange concept. Loki flicks his fingers in front of his face. He turns the pages of his books and studies the covers. There is color, and so much of it. 

He hears footsteps. When he looks up, Odin is standing there with a smile on his face. Loki wants to throttle him. 

"Why would you do this to me?" he hisses.

"She is beautiful, isn't she?"

"NO." Loki pounds a fist on the glass. "That human is NOT my soulmate. Gods do not have soulmates - half-gods do not either," he adds, before Odin can point out the Frost Giant in him. "This is a trick. You set this up to taunt me."

Odin shrugs and turns away, gold cape snapping behind him. "It set this up," he says, "to help you." 

Loki sinks to the floor for what must be the hundredth time. 

 

Silence falls. Minutes pass, one by one. He studies the colors that he has now memorized, hungering for more and more of them. He wants to break out of this cell and race through the world, drawing the color from people and things until it covers his hands and floods his mind. Until the human girl who gave it to him is lost in a sea of other memories. 

Red. He can imagine it, but after that glimpse of Thor's cloak, he hasn't seen any red since. 

Blue. The girl's eyes were blue. Her glasses were blue. 

His clothes and hair are black. Loki has spent his entire life seeing black. He wants something else, and it disgusts him. This is not a true existence, he needs to get out of this cell and find that girl -

No, find the colors, he reminds himself. He does not want to see the girl. He wants to see the colors and taste freedom and -

The door opens, and the girl slips in. 

Loki looks up, and she approaches his cell. She licks her pink lips, unsure of what to say. Loki swallows, his eyes trailing hungrily over every scrap of color she has brought into the room. So, he lied to Odin. She is beautiful. Decidedly so. Sounds stick in his throat again, the same word as before. Her eyes flicker into his. So much blue in such a small space. 

"I'm sorry I hit you," says the human girl suddenly. She turns to walk away. 

"Wait -" Loki calls. "Wait." 

The girl turns around.

"What is your name?" he whispers.

"Darcy."

Loki smiles. He can't help it. "Hello, Darcy." 

Darcy's feet slowly draw her back over to the cell. She can't open the door, not without a god here to do it, but she stands on the other side of the invisible wall and a smile creeps across her face. "Hello, Loki." 

_Oh gods, this was not supposed to happen._

But somehow, impossibly -

Darcy places a hand to the glass. 

_It wasn't supposed to happen, but it did._


End file.
